And It All Comes Out
by Fearel
Summary: Post Requiem, CC gives Kallen a copy of Code Geass and Kallen decides to show it to the entire cast in hopes of clearing Lelouch's name. The secrets that they uncover however, are far more then they bargained for. Contains POV of every surviving cast member, except for Schneizle because I don't like him.
1. Prologe

**A/N Welcome all. Although this fic will primarily be composed of the reactions of the entire surviving cast to watching Code Geass, with the obvious exceptions of Lelouch and CC, this story will contain some of its own original plot. This chapter, for example, is nothing more than the set up for the store that is to come. I considered waiting until I had finished writing the first chapter to post this and then post both at the same time but I decided that as this was already written I might as well just post it now. So while I recognize that this is relatively short and does not contain all that much I hope you enjoy!**

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**Prologue**

"Let me explain this carefully so it penetrates your thick skull. No, for the hundredth time this week, I will not go out with you! Have I made myself clear?"

"Oh come on, Kallen, it could be fun. Wait don't tell me, no wonder you turn me down every time, you've got the hots for some other guy, don't you? Come on, admit!" "No I don't!"

"Then why won't you go out with me?" "Gino, no matter how many times you ask me that question I'm going to keep giving you the same answer." "Which is?" "Like I've said before, I don't date!"

"Sure, right, a pretty girl like you? Not to mention an internationally famous one?" "I don't, now drop it!"

"You don't date hu? Are you trying to tell me that a pretty girl like you hasn't even had her first kiss yet?" "I didn't say that, and whether I have or not it isn't any of your business anyway!"

"So where did you get your first kiss, if you don't date?" "Like I said, none of your business!"

Gino grinned, "so you have kissed someone! So who was it?"

"Gino, more than half the girls in the school have crushes on you that are bigger then Tamaki's ego. Why can't you chase after one of them for a change?"

"But most of them would make even worse Knightmare Pilots he is. Seriously, Kallen, you're not like all the others. I mean how many of them could pilot the Gurn? Forget pilot it, Kallen you're the only girl who has ever beaten me in Knighmare combat!" "Then clearly you've never faced off against Anya."

"Ouch, okay point taken, but really why won't you go out with me? Something to do with this boy you kissed?" "Gino!"

"So it is, isn't it! So who was it?" "Like I said, it's nun of your god dam_"

"Sorry to interrupt you two love birds but_" "Rivalz!"

Kallen turned to glare at him from where she sat at the table in the student council room. "Yikes! Um a Kallen, there's someone on the phone for you." Rivalz shoved the phone into her hand and retreated a few steps, trying to get out of range of her glare. Kallen raised her eyebrows, slightly surprised. Who could be trying to reach her on the school phone? If her mom wanted her she'd just call her cell phone, the same went for the Black Knights. So who could it be?

Kallen held the phone up to her ear. "Hello?" "There's something important we need to discuss." The voice was female, clear, emotionless, and very familiar. "You!" Kallen nearly dropped the phone in shock. This was the last voice she'd ever expected to here again, well maybe the second to last…" Meet me in an hour, you know where, and make sure you bring an extra large pizza." "Meet you!? Meet you!? Why after everything that happened I'm going to_" _click_ "dammit, don't you go hanging up on me, you damned Witch!" Kallen glared down at the phone. "Wow, that's some strong language you're using. Who was that? Your ex-boyfriend?" "Can it Gino!" As Kallen stomped out of the room however, her mind was filled with emotions that had nothing to do with irritation. _What could she want? What could we have to say to each other now? Now that the only thing we both cared about is dead._

By the time Kallen reached the rundown construction site in the Shinjuku Ghetto dusk was falling. Kallen stared at the place. The last time she'd been there had been eight months before. Nothing had changed really in all that time. No one had disturbed the old metal pipes or the junk lying around everywhere. Last time, however, the place had not been empty. Last time **he** had bin here. Now however the place was deserted.

As if in answer to that thought a figure moved in the shadows. "You're late." "Kallen rolled her eyes. "There was a line at Pizza Hut. Now what do you want Witch?" CC stepped out of the shadows and held out her hand, in it she held a thin black plastic disc box. "What's that?" "I'm offering you a trade, that pizza as well as a credit account that allows me to buy pizza with your money for the next month." "Oh yeah, and why should I do that?" "I'm offering you the truth." CC didn't say what truth and Kallen didn't need to ask. There was only one truth that Kallen desired, and both she and CC new it.

Kallen wanted to snatch the box from the Witch's hand, but after that she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Part of her wanted to clutch it to her chest, this final gift from him, from the Demon who had saved the world. The other part of her wanted to throw it as far away from her as possible. After everything she had gone through she couldn't face more lies and more disappointment. Instead of doing either of these things she found herself spilling forth both her hopes and fears to the emotionless girl before her. "How do I know it's the real truth this time? How do I know it's not more lies? What's on here? Is this part of his plan? Is it a message or_" "everything. This is everything. The entire truth and evidence to support it." "Evidence? You mean…" The green haired girl nodded. "I thought you deserved the truth, there are some who have that right." Kallen nodded, "I understand."

Kallen fished around in her pocket and pulled out a credit card. "I'm warning you now I'm reporting this stolen after a month so don't even think about using it longer than that." "Right right, I understand, now hurry up, I don't like cold pizza." Kallen sighed, _some people never change_. She put the credit card on top of the pizza box and held it out to CC who took it and handed Kallen the disc box. Kallen looked down at the box for a long minute, an odd mixture of awe, excitement, and fear welled up inside her at the thought of what she held and what she was now going to do. She looked back up "CC, what if…" She trailed off, blinking a couple times in surprise for The Witch was gone.

Kallen took a deep breath, she knew what she had to do. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed the number. The phone rang a couple of times before someone picked up. "Yes?" "Zero, it's Kallen, I need a favor…"


	2. Stage 1 The Day A New Demon Was Born

**A/N, Hey all, sorry this took so long. When I posted the prologue my note may have led you to believe that I would be updating a lot sooner, and at the time that's exactly what I believe. unfortunately between the holidays, a nasty migraine, a sinus infection, a bad car accident, another nasty migraine brought on by said accident, and finally nearly two weeks of backlogged makeup work for school got in the way. Not only that but this chapter is 3 or 4 times as long as I intended it to be. in fact I think it might actually be too long. Some of it is still more intro that was needed simply because this is the beginning of the first chapter and other bits of it are reactions from characters that involves first contact with watching Code Geass, these to will be absent in later chapters. Still I feel like it may have gotten a little long and might drag a bit. If it does I apologize for that, and ask you to please bear with me until I get the hang of writing this.**

**THANKS SOOO MUCH FOR ALL THE REVIWS! I REALLY APPRECIATE THEM! Generally when I receive a review I will respond to, and that is exactly what I intend to do in case of all the wonderful reviews I got for the prologue. However, thanks to the number of unfortunate circumstances listed above, by the time I had the health and time required to do so, (it being extremely hard to type a word or two let alone a whole sentence with a migraine), over a week had already past. So I decided to borrow Mao's chainsaw, make my answers compact, and post them here: Raxius, I had not actually thought about the picture dramas but including them is a VARY GOOD idea I will definitely do so! With the exception of the first one because it takes place before the first episode, that is unless I think of a way to integrate it later. xStrykerJ, no I have not come across the FMA fic you mentioned but I am huge FMA fan and will definitely look up. To everyone else who reviewed my most sincere thanks and if you have any ideas to improve either the formatting or the content of this ****fic I would appreciate the feedback and advice.**

** Now, since you're finished with my ridiculously long authors note, or have simply been wise enough to ignore it altogether, on with the show!  
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**Stage 1 The Day A New Demon Was Born**

"So now that we're all here I trust that you're going to enlighten us as to why our presence was required here so urgently?" Xingke's question, voiced from where he sat beside the Empress, was curious rather than annoyed.

"Yes, and why you felt the need to summon all of us on such short notice when you say it isn't a military matter. Also I would like to know why their civilians here." Unlike Xingke Cornelia sounded distinctly irritated. Kallen supposed that no matter how willing Cornelia had been to set the past aside and work with Nunnally and the Black Knights toward building the world's future, she still found it rather presumptuous that any of them would dare to summon a Princess not to mention the Empress.

"So um about that, why are we here exactly?" "Rivalz," Milly hissed stepping on his foot. Then she stepped forward from where she and Rivalz had stood in the doorway to stand beside Kallen. "Hello everyone I'm Milly Ashford, it's a pleasure to meet you all."

Taking Milly's cue Kallen decided to begin with introduction. "Milly, Rivalz, you already know Nunnally and Sayoko of course and this is Nunnally's half-sister Princess Cornelia and her personal Knight Lord Guilford. The girl with the white hair is the Chinese Empress and the first person to speak was her guardian and general, Lord Xingke." Xingke nodded in greeting and the Empress smiled up at them.

"You already know Villetta and the man beside her is Prime Minister Ohgi. With them are Colonel Tohdoh and Commander Chiba, oh and Tamaki." "Hey, Kallen, why don't I get a fancy title?" Kallen ignored Tamaki and continued.

"You also obviously know Nina, Gino, and Anya, and this is Anya's guardian, Lord Jeremiah." "You are welcome here." Jeremiah said, giving a nod of greeting.

"The girl sitting next to the Empress is Lady Kaguya." "Nice to meet you." Kaguya waved cheerfully at the newcomers.

"Of course you obviously also know Lloyd and the woman he's too busy arguing with to notice my introduction is his counterpart in the Black Knights, Rakshada, and the woman trying to get them to be quiet is Lloyd's assistant, Cecile."

Kallen hesitated for a second and decided not even to mention "Zero." From the look Tohdoh was giving her, and Xingke's raised eyebrows she could tell that they at least had noticed this admission. Presumably Suzaku himself had also noticed but expressions didn't really convey well through the mask.

They were all sitting or standing in a room that resembled a miniature movie theater. It had been designed so that the Black Knights senior command staff could view video reports as well as both engineering and tactical diagrams on a large screen. The room's appointments however were designed to be more comfortable and homey than that of an average movie theater. Instead of individual chairs there were couches and these were arranged in three, loosely semicircular, rows of three. Behind the couches were a couple of rows of more conventional movie theater seating so as to accommodate a more expanded audience if necessary.

"So Zero, why have you summoned all of us here on only two days notice?" Orange asked, looking questioningly over at the masked man from where he sat beside Anya on the right-hand couch of the second tier. "I don't know, it's as Xingke surmised earlier, it was not I but Kallen who summoned all of you." At this a murmur ran around the room. Kallen cleared her throat nervously, she had thought about little else for the past two days but she still wasn't entirely sure how to begin.

"I suppose I should begin by answering Xingke's and Cornelia's questions. The reason I picked this particular group is because they were all personally involved in what we're about to see." She held up the black disk box, which she now knew contained two DVDs. One had been labeled R1 and the other one had been labeled R2. "I don't know exactly what's on here but I know that these DVDs contain the truth about someone who for better or for worse personally touched all of our lives." She cleared her throat again, it had suddenly become extremely dry. From the way Nunnally's eye's traveled quickly around the room's occupants then fixed wide-eyed on her, Kallen guessed that the girl had already figured out to whom she was referring. "The person I mean is Lelouch Vi Britannia."

Silence, total and complete. Every eye was fixed on her, even those of the two no longer quarreling scientists, even Guilford, who had been legally blind since the F.L.E.I.J.A incident, was staring at her. No one moved, no one spoke, it seamed as if no one even breathed. Whole lifetimes seemed to pass in that silence. Kallen could feel her heart beating within her chest, a lone thunder in all that stillness.

Finally words shattered the silence. "The truth? What truth? And how do we know that it's real." These words, spoken by Cornelia, seemed to plunge them all back into the flow of time. Gasps, murmurs, glances flying from eye, Kallen realized that the only people who hadn't moved were those who already knew the identity of the masked man who sat beside Nunnally and Sayoko on the middle sofa of the second tier and who seemed to have been turned to stone.

"I don't know, I haven't watched it yet, but that's what we're here to find out." "Where you get something like this?" That was Villetta. She was frowning up at Kallen from where she sat beside Ohgi on the foremost middle couch together with Tohdoh Chiba and Tamaki. "Let's just watch it for now, I'll tell you about that later." Kallen had thought about that question as well and had decided that to answer it right away would cause more confusion and distrust, it would be easy to deal with later.

"I think all of the discussion should wait till after we've seen some of what's on those DVDs." Kallen looked gratefully over at Xingke where he sat on the first left hand couch with The Emperies and Kaguya. "Right, I just have one request to make before we begin. Some of us are gonna know things that the others aren't, I'd like to request that everyone keeps quiet about what they know and just let people find out as they go along." There was a general murmur of assent combined with a good deal of confused and worried glances.

Kallen open the disc box and removed the disk labeled R1. Then she placed it in the disk drive and took a seat with the Ashford contingent on the couch directly below the one occupied by Anya and Orange. For a few heart stopping seconds the screen remained black then there was the sound a single heartbeat and slowly purple letters appeared. They read,

CODE GEASS

-Lelouch Of The Rebellion-

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The screen blinked as though it was an eye opening, then for an instant they were staring at the witch's eye. Then there was a quick succession images coming to rest on that of two boys.

Suzaku stared at the screen in disbelief, the others might take a minute or two to figure it out but he knew exactly what he was looking at. This was impossible, absolutely impossible, yet there was no doubt in his mind that what he was staring at was an image of himself, he and Lelouch on the day that Britannia had invaded Japan.

It was those eyes, those eyes had given it away. For the few moments she had watched the two boys clamber up the side of the bluff, the brown haired one assisting the black haired one, Cornelia had doubted what she was seeing but those eyes swept away her doubts. One of the boys she was looking at was a younger version of her half-brother, Lelouch Vi Britannia.

That was when the voiceover began. They all watched as the voice that some of them recognized to be that of CC outlined for them Britannia's conquest of Japan. Then the image re-focused on the two boys. This time they sat in the rubble that surrounded what only some in the room recognized as Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi's funeral pyre. Then Lelouch spoke "I swear," at this the second boy, Suzaku, looked up, "I swear, Suzaku so help me, I will one day, obliterate Britannia!"

The first notes of what appeared to be a theme song shattered the shocked silence that seemed to descend over the room. "What the hell?" That was Tamaki. "I don't understand, what's happening? Why would he make that vow?" Ohgi asked, staring open mouthed at the screen. "Yeah that doesn't make any sense." Gino chimed in. "He was Britannian royalty. I mean, what was he even doing in Area Ele- I mean Japan anyway?" "That's not possible." Tohdoh stated, a frown creasing his face. The entire room turned to stare at him. "That's Prime Minister Kururugi's funeral pyre. There weren't any video cameras there, no recordings." "Well clearly that isn't true," Rakshada pointed out, her pipe dangling lightly from one hand. "What's with this theme song thing anyway," Chiba asked, glaring at the screen.

Cornelia didn't join in the general hubbub but she did have something to say, which addressed in a low murmur to Guilford. "So that vow, that is how it began." Guilford simply nodded in agreement. Guilford also probably knew what she was really saying, or at least thinking. _That vow, that's why he did it, why he took my brother and sister away from me. When it all comes down to it, that's really what it was all about for him. It wasn't about Nunnally or freeing Japan, just about destroying Britannia. And it was for that reason he sacrificed Euphy! _

Suzaku didn't dare open his mouth for fear that he would say something that would reveal his identity. He was in shock, it was as Tohdoh said, this simply wasn't possible. Nevertheless what he had seen had to be real, it simply had to be, for that was Lelouch's voice and he was speaking words that Suzaku alone had ever heard. He had thought them over many times since then. Once or twice when he began to suspect a connection between Lelouch and Zero, and several more times after agreeing to help Lelouch with the Requiem, and in the months following his death. He had thought about them for both their truth and there irony, but letting his mind dwell on them was one thing and hearing them again new spoken was another. Even as he watched the screen in a state that could only be described as shock, some part of Suzaku wanted to reach out to that younger Lelouch. To tell him what he was embarking on and try to turn him from his purpose. Yet even then, sitting in the rubble more than eight years earlier, Suzaku knew it was already too late.

* * *

The theme music continued even though the center of the screen had suddenly gone black. Around the edges there was still sunset like light but it was as though someone had simply place a black rectangle over the center of the screen. "Someone has edited this and they didn't do a very good job." Nina said pointing up the rectangle. "My guess is that the image probably gives away something, like a dark secret all of us aren't supposed to know yet." Kaguya said leaning forward in excitement.

Then the screen went fully black only to reveal the Black Knight's logo over which the words, Stage 1 The Day A New Demon Was Born Appeared. That was followed by the words, 7 years after the war (2017 a.t.b). Then, Britannian Residents -Tokyo Settlement.

The video picked back up again with footage of Britannian helicopters chasing down a truck. Then it transitioned to a room where two men, one a nobleman, were playing chess and, along with some others, watching were watching the news. "Hey wait a minute, I recognize that." Rivalz said pointing at the screen. Sure enough the door opens to reveal two Britannian students, one was Rivalz, the other Lelouch. "A student," Chiba stared at the screen in surprise. "I knew he was young, but I guessed early 20s…" Villeta shook her head "at that point he would've been 17." This elicited a shocked murmur from some of the rooms inhabited.

The video continued as Lelouch identified himself as Lelouch Lamperouge and sat down to play. Then the scene changed to that of Ashford. Milly stared open mouthed at what she saw. She watched as a younger version of herself was teasing Shirley about her crash. "There weren't any video cameras there either." "This is getting weird," Ohgi said, tension in his voice. "No kidding," Gino muttered.

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The scene shifted again and now it was Kallen's tern for surprise as she saw herself together with Nagata in the front of the truck, trying to out run the Britannian Air Force. "Perfect," Nagata growled. "After we finally steel this damn thing, it's all because Tamaki couldn't stick to Naoto's plan, and now we've got a problem!" "My fault!" Tamaki jumped up to shout at the screen. Chiba forcibly pulled him back down. "why that…" Tamaki trailed off into muttering but nobody paid any attention. Ohgi also seemed to recognize what they were looking at. "But that was…" "The same day the Shinjuku!" Kallen finished.

* * *

Then Clovis began his speech. Cornelia might be furious at his death and all too willing to avenge him, but she had to admit, he was a moron. The travesty of his speech ended with a request for a moment of silence. "Well aren't you gonna join in?" Rivalz asked. Lelouch shook his head "are'n you?" "Ha, it's sort of embarrassing." "And I agree with you. Besides spilling tears over those people won't bring them back to life now will it." Several of the watchers shivered and on the screen Rivalz said, "dang, that's dark buddy." "It's all about self-satisfaction." Lelouch responded coolly, "doesn't matter how hard you try you can't do it. There's no way you can change the world." This incited some murmuring, but everyone was startled when a quiet peal of laughter echoed through the room. Kallen turned along with everyone else to stare in surprise up at, Nunnally. The Britannian Empress had one hand pressed to her mouth and looked almost as startled as the rest of the room. Kallen couldn't help but smile, she knew exactly what Nunnally was thinking. _This from the man who had done exactly that on the largest scale possible._

They all watch as Clovis made to return to his party, and declared himself to be "the Marquis actor of Area 11." At that point not even loyal Jeremiah couldn't think of anything positive to say about the Prince's idiocy. From where he stood in the corner Diethard muttered "his reign is a pathetic sham." "Your Highness!" Bartly burst into the room clearly panicked. "hu," Diethard raises eyebrows "a soldier?" In the middle of the room Bartly and the Prince carried on a hurried and unheard conversation. Diethard stretched and began walking off down the hall. "Not another appearance for him. I hope it's not as dreary_" "You fool!" The Prince shouted. Diethard turned back. "The police were informed that it's medical equipment, that's all. If we scramble the Army there'll be a retinue_" Clovis cut Bartly off. "Deploy the Royal guard! The Knightmares as well!"

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"Wow we really got them mad!" Tamaki exclaimed pausing the video. "Any idea what you stole," Cornelia asked. Kallen shook her head, "nope, not a clue." "I don't think anyone knows, unless," Ohgi turning to his wife, "Villetta?" She shook her head, "we were dispatched to retrieve it but we were told it was chemical weapons. Lord Jeremiah, you were in charge of our unit. Do you know anything?" Orange shook his head, "no, I wasn't told anymore than you were." "Well, whatever was in there, we may have just found the reason for the massacre in Shinjuku."

Everyone turned to stare at Tohdoh. "The massacre in Shinjuku?" Suzaku was so startled that he accidentally voiced his thought out loud. As far as he'd been told the deaths in Shinjuku had been the result of poisonous gas released by the terrorists. Yet here with the selfsame terrorists looking even more puzzled than he was about the source of the deaths. Had it really been a massacre? He saw Milly Rivalz and Gino shooting him confused looks. As far as they knew he was the original Zero so shouldn't he already know all about it? The others however were exchanging furtive glances. They were clearly asking themselves who this new Zero was and how much, if anything, he knew about his predecessor. "We shall see," was all that Tohdoh said as he took the remote from Tamaki and pressed play.

* * *

They watched as the Knightmares were sent out. Then the scene changed and to that of Lelouch and Rivalz's motorcycle. Presumably they were in route back to school. "That first move you made," Rivalz said, turning his head slightly to look over at Lelouch. "hum?" "Why'd you start with the king?" Lelouch looked up from the book he was reading. "If the king doesn't leave how can he expect his subordinates to follow?"

Kallen smiled to herself, to her that philosophy tallied exactly with Lelouch's actions as Zero. The others however were not so sanguine. Ohgi snorted in discussed, and Tamaki slammed his fist into the side of the couch. Chiba crossed her arms and muttered to herself, but loud enough so that everyone could hear. "Lead, the only thing he ever led in with lies and deceit…" Out of all of them Rivalz was the most volatile. "Wait, Wait! Does that mean, back then, he was thinking of_" He was cut off as the Rivalz on the screen asked, "what's with that?" "With what?" "Do you fantasize about running a major corporation?" "Well that's one way you could look at," Lloyd pointed out. "Lloyd!" Cecile hissed, stepping hard on his foot. "Ow, that hurt." Lelouch snorted, "no way. Ambitions like that will ruin your health." Some wry twist of dark humor prompted Suzaku to raises hand to cover his mouth, only to find the mask in his way and it did nothing to stifle the slight chuckle that escaped his lips.

Lelouch turned his head at the sound of a horn blaring just behind him. Rivalz let out something that sounded a bit like a squawk as they both became aware of the truck bearing down just behind them. "That was you!" The exclamation came almost simultaneously from the lips of both Kallen and Rivalz. Kallen glared at Rivalz who rubbed at his ear and looked sheepish. "We're gonna die!" The Rivalz on the screen shouted. "You idiot, watch where you're going!" Nagata yelled, swerving to avoid the motorcycle. "No, not that way Kallen" shouted. Too late, Nagata swerved sideways straight through some cones and a traffic barrier, tried to turn and slammed into the side of a building. Inwardly Kallen groaned, both in irritation and remembered pain. "A, was that our fault?" The Rivalz on the screen asked. "Of course it was you moron." Kallen turned to glare him. Rivalz just look even more sheepish than before.

* * *

Bartley strode down a dark hallway looking worried. "We have to retrieve it at all costs. That thing, in the wrong hands…" Bartley's voice was perfectly clear but his mouth was moving. "No way, that can't be…" Kaguya's voice trailed off to be replaced by Xingke's. "Those have to be his thoughts." "What the?" "How is that possible?" Kaguay's shoulders tensed and her eyes darted around the room. She was starting to have a really bad feeling about this. Mysterious cameras in the prince's social hall or in the gambling room were one thing, a recording of people's thoughts was something else entirely.

* * *

There was an odd green mist that seemed to sparkle above the crashed truck. Lelouch called for Rivalz to coming take a look, but Rivalz was too busy worrying about his bike to notice. "Hey, are you all right?" Lelouch had made his way down to the truck. He climbed up the ladder to reach the top of the truck. "Hey, can you hear me? Are you okay?" Then the screen flashed with blue light and waving lines. There was a strange vibration around Lelouch's head and a soft female voice spoke. "It's you, finally I have found my_" the voice went suddenly silent. Lelouch blinked just then Nagata stepped on the gas and Lelouch fell forward into the truck. "Stop, I'm in here!" Lelouch's exclamation went almost unheard, muffled by Kallen's own. "WAIT,WHAT! He was in there!" She leaped to her feet and Ohgi tensed and sat forwarded in his chair. Milly grabbed her hand and pulled her back down.

They watched as Lelouch try to find a way to get out only to hear gunfire and the pursuing helicopters. "Now what do we do, that's the Army!" Nagata shouted. "Have you forgotten?" Kallen yelled back, "that's what I'm here for!" Kallen watched in bemused disbelief as the Kallen on the screen walked straight past where Lelouch was hiding on her way the Knightmare. As she reached the Knightmare Nagata shouted after her. "Kallen let's use it here, why not?" "Because that would mean a bloodbath!" Kallen called back. Suzaku blinked, if they hadn't used chemical weapons then what had really happened in Shinjuku? Then again of course they hadn't used chemical weapons for he, unlike the rest of the room, knew exactly what was in that capsule. Weapon it might be, but it, or rather she, was far more dangerous then any toxic gas.

"I've seen her before," Lelouch murmured to himself then his eyes alighted on the communicator that Kallen had left in the pocket of her jacket.

They watched as Kallen, piloting a Glasgow, leaped from the truck and attacked the pursuing aircraft only to be engaged by an enemy Knightmare piloted by Jeremiah. "… An over the hill Glasgow is no match for a Sutherland, not to mention a filthy 11 who spurns the compassion of our glorious Emperor!" Even as the screen Jeremiah finished speaking, the present day Jeremiah found himself the object of the stairs or rather glares of all of the so-called "filthy 11s." It took a lot to make Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald feel uncomfortable but this was certainly one of those rare times. He cleared his throat, tugged at his collar which felt unusually tight, and turned to look in the opposite direction. Beside him Anya didn't even appear to notice.

As the battle continued Kallen and Nagata split up and Nagata came under attack by Villeta. He dodged away from her Knightmare and Villeta snorted in discussed, "simpleminded 11." Villeta blushed slightly and looked uncomfortably at her husband, then away.

* * *

The image of Lelouch sitting and scheming in the back of the truck was replaced by that of Rivalz pushing the damaged bike back to Ashford. "Some friend, leaving me behind like that." He grumbled to himself. Milly laughed, and some of the others let out snickers. Rivalz sunk down in his seat, arms crossed, looking in equal parts grumpy and embarrassed.

* * *

"Ah ha!" "What are you doing!?" "Looking at a man who blundered am I right?" "Why you!" Bartley growled. This time Rivalz join in the laughter. "Well well, you seem to be doing a fine job, pudding Earl." Rakshada waved her pipe across the third row of sofas to where Lloyd sat. "Humph, well I was right now wasn't I?" Lloyd folded his arms looking peeved. "Yes, but perhaps you shouldn't have put it quite like that," Cecile pointed out. "Well whatever, I mean it's not like it matters now does it? The only thing that matters is that he let me use the incident to gather battle data for the Lancelot." "A typical response," Rakshada gave him her most irritating smile. "Oh, and what's that supposed to mean." "Well, she does have a point." Cecile put her hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter.

* * *

When they saw the state that Nagata was in it wipe the smiles off of the faces of the original members of the Black Knights. Villeta was staring very pointedly in the other direction with a pained look on her face. The others watched as the truck stop and Nagata opened the side door in hopes of rescue. It was not however a rescuer who had caught sight of the truck but rather a Britannian soldier. Using his scanners he identify the capsule and signaled its location. Then, seeing Lelouch kneeling next to the castle, he headed toward the truck. When the soldier attacked Lelouch it was Nunnally who first recognized his voice. "That's, that's Suzaku!" "What?" The entirety of the room, with the exception of the knight himself, turned to look at her. "How can you be so sure?" Chiba, asked sounding skeptic. "I know his voice, I know it's him." "She's right," Kallen said, nodding thoughtfully." That move he used just now, he did the same thing when he was fighting in the Lancelot." "I still think it's highly unlik-" "My god, Lelouch it's me, Suzaku." Kaguya laughed and Chiba turned slightly red.

"It's, it's you. You became a Britannian soldier?" "And what about you? You're a-" "what are you saying!?" That was when the pod began to open. "Well, whatever it is," Xingke glanced over at Tohdoh before fixing his eyes back on the screen, "it looks like we'll find out soon enough. Only since they both survive, I'm betting it's got little to do with poison gas." The capsule opens and they watched in shock as they discovered what exactly had been unleashed there in Shinjuku.

"The Witch!" "NO WAY!" "CC!" "Who is that?!" Milly stared around the room at the others, looking for an answer. No one ancered."That's CC? Nunnally asked looking over at Cecile. Cecile nodded, "yes Empress but I have no idea what she was doing in that." "It appears that Clovis may have been studying her." Everyone turned to look at Cornelia, "why would he do that?" Ohgi asked. "I don't know." Cornelia frowned. "How ironic." Everyone turned back to look at Jeremiah, even Suzaku. Orange simply shook his head and gestured for Tohdoh to hit play.

"Private Kururug take this and execute the terrorist." The entire room went became still and tense. Nunnally was twisting her hands together in her lap. Sayoko reached out and layed comforting hand on Nunnally's arm. Even Kallen was feeling on edge, both she and every other person in the room knew of course that both Suzaku and Lelouch had survived. Nevertheless she couldn't help asking herself, "how the heck are they going to get out of this one?"

That was when the captain of the Royal guard fired. Both Lelouch and Nunnally cried out at the same time. Oghi and Chiba both gave her startled looks, as though they found it astonishing that the Demons Knight could mean anything to the Empress. One of Nunnally's hands flew her mouth, the other was grasped by Zero who gave it a light squeeze of reassurance. Xingke also shot a look at Nunnally, but his was one of wary curiosity, and, unlike Oghi and Chiba, neither the hand squeeze nor the comfort it seems to bring. "So that's how he was injured!" Cecile's voice broke some of the tension in the room. Xingke gave her only the slightest of glances before turning his attention back to Zero and The Empress. _Clearly there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye. There is something between those two, and somehow I don't think it is much to do with romance, or at least if it is romance that's not the only thing. In any case I think we're all in for some nasty surprises._

"No!" Kallen watched as Nagata press the button and the truck exploded. Ohgi just turned his face away.

* * *

"If knowledge of her gets out I'll be disinherited." Clovis sounded resigned rather than upset. "Tell them back home that we're carrying out a planned urban renewal here. As Clovis, Third Prince of Empire, I command you: destroy Shinjuku ghetto, leave no one alive!" "What!" "No WAY!" "He Didn't!" "That Fool!" This last from Xingke. The Japanese were on their feet, all of them, furious. Milly covered her mouth her eyes round as saucers. For once even she didn't know what to say. Cecile was staring at the screen as though she had never seen it before. "That's not possible, there must be some mistake." Yet her voice was soft, as though she didn't really believe what she was saying. Nunnally was crying, the shock evident in every line of her features. Suzaku stared in horror at the prince's image. _No, no way, he ordered, ordered them to kill everyone. Every single person, just like that, so matter-of-factly. Just because they might see CC. Then I, I wasn't sent the fight the terrorists, I was sent to destroy the innocent. _Anya looked over at Kallen. She had remained quiet the entire time but now, in a quiet voice, she spoke. "I can see now, why you resist them."

* * *

"Supervisor Jeremiah, General Bartley request that you take command of_" "Bartley his staff officers, I haven't had this much fun on the front lines for ages." _Thwack _Jeremiah was knocked sideways as Kallen's hand slammed into the side of his face. She had jumped from her couch up on to the second tier and now stood in front of him, a glare of pure loathing in her eyes, and her hand raised as if to strike him again. "How dare you! How dare you laugh at the suffering of my people! Damned Britannian! How dare you enjoy slaughtering them!"

"Kallen, Stop!" Zero was on his feet to. "And you, how dare you defend him!" Kallen glared up at him, the loathing that she had shown toward Jeremiah still pouring off her in waves. She made to strike Jeremiah again but Anya grabbed her arm. "No."

"Zero's right, we can't afford to become divided now." Xingke to was on his feet, one arm flung out as though to protect the Empress from Kallen's wrathful gaze. His words seemed to bring Kallen to her senses. Her eyes darted to Tohdoh, who though clearly angry, gave the slightest nod.

Kallen turned and dropped back in to her seat, arms crossed, eyes blazing with barely suppressed fury. As Jeremiah righted himself, and the others again took their seats, Xingke wondered if anyone else has noticed what he had. _A lot of things about that were certainly odd. For one thing Orange made no move to stop her or to defend himself. That probably means that he regrets his actions. But what could've brought about such a complete change of character? Could it be geass? Maybe it was more powerful then we though. Maybe it didn't die with the Demon. He could still be affected somehow. _

_I'll have to watch him, and that's not the only thing that's odd. The way Kallen spoke to Zero just now, it was too personal. And the way she looked at him, they definitely have a history of some sort, and I'd be very surprised if it happened while he was behind that mask. _

_There's also the exchange between her and Tohdoh. That wasn't normal either. She wasn't looking for his approval, it was more like she was remembering something that they both knew about, something important. Or maybe she was acknowledging it, whatever it is that has to be relevant. It's possible that Tohdoh knows who Zero is as well. In which case that increases the likelihood that he's someone from their past. Maybe even someone in this video.  
_

* * *

The video may have wrought the dissent in the Allies midst, but it also proved to be a potent distraction. By the time the Britannian soldiers were Lelouch and CC at gunpoint, even Kallen and Xingke were once more giving their full attention to the screen. "What an appropriate location for a terrorist to meet his end." "You scum." Lelouch seemed to gasp for breath. "Still You did well for student, but that's to be expected, you're a Britannian. Unfortunately my clever young friend, you have no future." The captain raised his gun. "He mustn't die!" CC flung herself in front of Lelouch and the bullet hit her squarely in the center of her forehead. "What the…" Ohgi couldn't even finish the sentence. That was impossible, even more impossible than the wholly impossible situation of the cameras and the overheard thoughts. He could buy that Suzaku had just been injured, that some lucky, or unlucky, chance had saved his life, but this. There was no mistaking this. CC was dead, but he had met her, talked to her. Yet the video couldn't be a fake, not when it matched up with their every memory so exactly. So what the hell was going on.

_"How can this be happening. First Suzaku's killed, then this girl. Now I'm about to die, before I've had a chance to do a single thing with my life, it's gone in a heartbeat. Nunnally!"_ Silent tears welled up in Nunnally's eyes. "Oh, Lelouch, no. Big brother…" She whispered her words into the hands that covered her mouth. Sayoko rapped a protective arm around her shoulders. At the sound of her name everyone in the room who didn't know about her connection to Lelouch turned to stare at her in surprise but their attention quickly return to the screen for that moment the dead girl, who Nunnally had been told was CC, moved.

Her wrist flicked and her hand grabbed Lelouch's. Suddenly everything except him disappeared, swallowed by blue light and currents of energy. "You don't want to attend here do you?" _What?_ "You appear to have a reason for living." _The girl, that's impossible._ "If I gave you power could you go on? I propose a deal. In exchange for this power you must agreed to make my one wish come true. Except this contract and you accept its conditions. While living in the world of humans you will live unlike any other. A different providence, a different time, a different life. The power of the King will condemn you to a life of solitude. Are you prepared for this?" "A convergence with the Ragnarök Connection, so the myth is beginning once again!" "Yes, I hereby accept the terms of your contract."

"Say, how should a Britannian who detests his own country live his life?" "Are you some kind of radical?" "What's wrong? Why not shoot? Your opponent is only a schoolboy. Or have you finally realize, the only ones who should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed." "Au,what's happening here!?" "Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you, now all of you, die!" "He, hehehe. Happily Your Highness! Fire!"

* * *

"What the hell…" Gino stared at the screen, feeling nothing but shock. "Wh-what was that? What happened?" Rivalz sounded as though he was going to be sick. "There's only one thing it could've been." Cornelia gestured at the screen. Kallen nodded, "the ultimate power of the King, so that's how he obtained it. Geass."

* * *

"That was the turning point. Since that day I've lived a lie, the lie of living. My name to was a lie, my personal history lies, nothing but lies. I was sick to death of a world that couldn't be changed, but now this incredible power, it's mine. Well then…"


	3. Stage 2 The White Knight Awakens

**A/N Hey all, sorry this took a lot longer than intended. I'll try to keep updates more regular from now on. I'd like to thank everyone who read reviewed favorited or followed this story. You guys are awesome. The majority of the reviews pointed out the serious flaws in my formatting and frankly I totally agree. I've tried to format this chapter much more clearly than the last but I'm sure there's still room for improvement and any feedback is always helpful. I've also decided to put everything that's happening on the screen in bold so that it should be easy to tell the difference between what's happening on the screen and what's happening in the present. I always appreciate feedback and am always ready to take it into consideration. It is for this reason that I wanted to raise two questions about the future of this story. Firstly fco ala asked if I could add some of the dead characters into the fic. I wasn't it originally intending to do this because I have some ideas of my own involving CC and the plot moving forward as well of course as the watching of Code Geass episodes which of course is the main focus of the story and will take up at least 95% of it. However if a lot of people like this idea I have no problem rearranging the story accordingly. The second question involves... well am actually I find that I'm not drawing a complete mental blank as to what the second thing I wanted to talk about is so I'll just have to save it for... Weight no, I remember now, ( seriously not making any of that up I spent the last like 5 to 10 min. trying to remember what the heck I was writing about). Anyway I wanted to bring up pairings. There are two pairings that will definitely come up, Ohgi x Villetta, obvious considering their married, and Suzaku x Euphy, mostly for the purposes of character torture. Other than that though there are two options. I could either A. add in bits of the pairings that I personally follow (Kallen x Lelouch, Cornelia x Guilford, and Milly x Rivalz) or B. tried to keep it as pairing free as possible without deviating from characters personalities. Needless to say I would prefer to adding a drop of the pairings I favor but again I'm open to whatever the majority of the readers want me to do. Now Orange you glad you're done with my incredibly long authors note ;) Terrible Code Geass jokes aside he is the next chapter.**

**Stage 2 The White Knight Awakens**

Once upon a time less than three years before Rivalz Cardemonde had been an average run-of-the-mill high school student. His life had consisted of school, gambling with his best friend Lelouch Lemperouge, and trying to figure out how to get the beautiful and energetic Milly Ashford to think of him as more than a friend. He had gone into about 17 different kinds of shock when he'd been introduced to Milly's fiancé, Earl Lloyd Asplund. True at least 10 out of the 17 different pieces of that shock had been related to the idea of Milly being engaged to anybody, but a good deal of it had also been caused by meeting an Earl face-to-face in the middle of the Student Council room. Since then he had gone through shock after shock, from finding out that the frail loner who had recently joined the student Council was actually a member of the terrorist group known as the Black Knights, to having to suffer through the unexplainable death of one of his closest friends. At that point he had begun to think that he could never ever be shocked again. That was until the day that he had turned on the news to watch the Emperor give a live speech only to see Lelouch take a seat on the emperor's thrown. Since then, as far as Rivalz was concerned, the word reality had seemed to have less to do with his life then the word royalty ever had.

Recently though he had begun to think that the crazed insanity had come to an end. The latest impossible event had been suddenly realizing that somebody had reached into his head and scrambled his memory. When he and Milly had made a fuss about it Nunnally had told them that they had been "canceled," and that it had something to do with their protection and the Japanese Revolution, Nina had said it had something to do with a new technological discovery that even she couldn't explain, and so the two of them had just grown to accept it. That however had been several months before and since then life had once again taking on some semblance of normality. That was, until the day Kallen had announced that in two days time she would need them to come with her to an unspecified location for an unspecified length of time because she had something top-secret that she thought they ought to see.

The fact that Kallen was the famous ace of the Black Knights not to mention the best Knightmare pilot in the entire world had occurred to him once to twice. It was a bit like the knowledge that Nunnally was the Britannia Empress, technically he knew it to be true, but somehow, even on the rare occasions when he did think about it, some part of refused register that it was anything more than a made up story. Or rather, that was until he walked through the door and found himself in the same room with all of the world's most powerful people. The realization that any decisions made by the people in the room in which he now sat could rewrite the history of the entire world was a thought that he was hardly comfortable with. Furthermore both Kallen and Nunnally seemed completely at home in their surroundings and that weirded him out even more, that is, if it was even possible for things to get any weirder.

Of course, just like in the case everything else that had come before he had proven wrong, things could always get weirder. The video had driven every other thought from his mind, and that was before he witnessed the contract. By the time the ending credits rolled he had all but given up trying to process what he was seeing. There was no way, there was simply no way…

_Lelouch just… he just… he'd… he just ordered about a dozen members of the Royal guard to commit suicide and they did it without an eyelash. No! No way! It's not possible! There's just no way!_

* * *

Wile Rivalz and the majority of the rest of the room's inhabitants were busy picking there mouths up off the floor, Xingke's mind was otherwise engaged. Surprised? Yes, he had to admit that even hadn't realized that CC had anything to do with geass but this was not the time to sit and gape like an idiot. He was sure that as the viewing went on the undercurrents he'd begun to notice would become more prevalent, coalescing into some sort of pattern. A pattern that might be able to allow him to understand the truths relating to more people than just the Demon. Nevertheless he was sure that if he tried to keep it all in his head he'd end up missing or forgetting something. What he was seeing at the moment for example.

Sure everyone in the room looked shocked but they appeared to be shocked to different degrees. As his eyes darted around the room he compiled a mental list. _Out of everyone the people who look the most shocked are the Knight of Three and his two civilian companions_. _That makes sense because as far as I know they might very well be the only people in the room who were previously unaware of Zero's true identity and geass._

_ No, that's not strictly true. I'm not sure whether or not Lord Asplund and his subordinates know but considering that initially they worked for the Demon it wouldn't surprise me if they'd seen him use the power before. _

_As for the Knight of Six, she appears to be surprised rather than overly shocked but from what I've seen she almost never reveals any emotion so I can't be sure. _

_The other question is of course the new Zero. Who is he? Is he someone from the outside or is he already involved in all this? If he already has some idea what's going on it might make life simpler in the future on the other hand if he's already involved then he's probably got his own agenda here which means that he definitely can't be trusted._

_Among everyone else the Black Knights all appear to be severely startled but not as shocked as the Ashford group, but then that's to be expected. Lord Gilford looks about the same. _

_Princess Cornelia however appears as though she saw this coming. That's interesting. She clearly knows a lot more than she's letting on. As for Empress Nunnally and her bodyguard, well the Empress looks shocked and as for her servant she appears surprised but she's almost as good at hiding her emotions as lady Alstriem so it's hard be to sure. _

_Kozuki appears even less surprised then Princess Cornelia. Add that to her actions earlier and I think it's safe to say out of everyone here she knows the most. There's even a possibility that she knew about Zero's true identity before everyone else did._

_Then there's Lord_ _Jeremiah, he doesn't look surprised at all. That can mean only one thing, he is already fully aware, not only of the existence of geass, but also of how it is abstained. Could that be because he's still under its influence? If so what is his purpose? Is he still following some order of the Demons? _

_There is something going on here that I don't know about. The new Zero's involve, so are Kozuki and Tohdoh, or at least they know about it. Jeremiah's also got something to do with it although he and Kozuki do not appear to working together. Whenever it is, I need to figure it out quickly, or Her Highness could be in danger."_

Xingke rose to his feet and cleared his throat. "Before we continue, I ask that you give me a moment to retrieve something. Empress, if you will give me leave?" She nodded up at him, a jerky jester, no doubt do to shock resulting from what they'd just seen. Xingke gave her hand a quick reassuring squeeze, bowed formally to her, and left the room.

* * *

As Xingke quitted the room, Tohdoh watched him go. Xingke might never have been the manipulative schemer that Schneizel or Lelouch had bin but the man was still clever than Tohdoh liked. Not only was he clever he was also observant. Tohdoh had noticed the way Xingke had been scrutinizing them and he was beginning to worry that the man would see through too many of the lies and deceptions that hung heavy in the room. Tohdoh was pretty sure he knew exactly who was behind Zero's mask and he had his own personal reasons for keeping that secret but if Xingke were to figure it out there might be trouble on a scale that hadn't been seen since the Demon's demise.

After Xingke had left the room, quiet conversations had broken out all over it. Everyone was tense edge agitated, and Gino couldn't blame them. After what he'd just seen saying that he was unnerved would be an understatement, something in the same class as calling a F.L.E.J.A a weapon or calling Zero smart. Nevertheless the tension was starting to get on his nerves. Also he wanted to try and get the conversation, and the world in general, back into a category he understood. He noticed that Kallen, who was sitting on the same couch as he was, was pointedly avoiding being dragged into the conversation of Milly and Rivalz who sat between them. Perfect.

"Hey Kallen", he said loudly enough that Milly and Rivalz broke off their conversation to look at him. "How about a change of subject." She raised her eyebrows at him, "what is it Gino?" They haven't even exchanged two sentences yet and she was already sounding annoyed. "It's about what we were talking about the other day." She just looked at him. "We were interrupted before by that phone call but I still want to know, who was it you kissed?" Kallen flushed "Gino I thought I told you before, it's none of your god damn business." "Aw come on Kallen, don't be like that. Tell you what, how about a guessing game. All you have to do is say yes or no." "Shut up." "You kissed someone? How exciting! Oo I'm just dying to know who!" Kaguya said, leaning toward them from where she sat with the Chinese Empress on the other side of the room. Kallen crossed her arms and looked pointedly in the other direction. By this point however the Ashford crowd weren't the only ones watching. "Was it hum… Let me see."

Gino thought for a moment. This was going to be hard. If it was one of the guys who had been at Ashford before the Black Rebellion then they had all gone back to Britannia before Gino had started there so he wouldn't know them. Nevertheless he had a sneaking suspicion that whoever it was, and he really did to find out who, was not some run-of-the-mill random student. One of the Black Knights may be…

"Was it Tamaki?" Kallen actually burst out laughing. "Gino, you've got to be kidding me! You think I'd ever even consider Tamaki?" "Hey wait a minute! What's wrong with me?!" Tamaki spluttered while the rest of the room joined in Kallen's laughter. Gino tried listing off the names of several other Black Knights but Kallen just kept shaking her head and rolling her eyes and Gino soon gave that up, after all he didn't know the names of very many. He cast around for anyone he knew she was close to. "Was it Ohgi?" She gave him an absolutely disgusted look. "No of course it wasn't idiot!" He caught a startled and somewhat agitated look from Ohgi, and a downright sinister one from Villetta, and decided he'd better think of someone else, fast. "What about Rivalz?" More laughter. This time it was Milly Who laughed the loudest. Rivalz turned slightly pink. "Aw come on Milly," he muttered, "you don't have to laugh so hard do you?"

Gina had another idea. "Oh, no way can it be! No there is no way, there's absolutely no way! I bet I know, no it can't be!" For a moment a trace of something that looked awfully like fear flashed across Kallen's face. "It's Suzaku!" Kallen nearly choked on a burst of laughter. Her eyes flicked upward and Gino followed her gaze. Zero appeared to be spluttering with shock and what Gino could only assume was amusement at the mere suggestion. So even he, who had before seemed to take no notice of the conversation, found that one funny. Slightly relieved by this obvious denial, and encouraged by his success, Gino continued.

"Don't tell me it was the Demon!"

Dead silence. The laughter seemed to have frozen on everybody's faces. The room's tension, which had began to dissolve, return to an even greater extent. Worse than that, pain was now evident on many of the surrounding faces, most particularly that of Nunnally. Kallen to looked as though she'd just been thrust forcibly into the middle an extremely painful memory. Gino wanted to slap himself for being so stupid. The whole point of choosing this group at after all had been that they all had a personal connection to him. Worse than that, before he revealed his true colors the Demon had even been a friend to many of them. Of course remembering him would be far too painful for laughter.

The silence was broken by Xingke's reentry. He raised his eyebrows at the stiff hard silence that enveloped the room, but otherwise made no comment. When he had taken his seat Ohgi cleared his throat and asked in a voice a seemingly forced calm. "Should we continue?" There were some nods and murmurs of assent. Then Ohgi point the remote at the screen and pressed play.

* * *

**"The date was August 10 in the year 2010 of the Imperial calendar. The holy Britannian Empire had just declared war upon Japan. Confronted by Britannia's newest weapon, the formidable Knightmare Frame, Japan fell to its enemy in less than a month. The conquered nation was stripped of its freedom rights culture and dignity. Finally even its name was taken away. 11 the name of Japan and its people was replaced with a mere number."**

* * *

"Yes, we are all quite well aware of that! Now get on with the dam show!" Chiba snapped at the screen.

* * *

**"I don't understand, what you wanted me to do. Why did you give me this bizarre power?"**

**There was a thudding crash from behind, and a Knightmare appeared through the smoke. **Villetta tensed, seconds later she appeared on the screen. She watched, lips pressed tightly together, as she confronted Lelouch.

**"What happened here boy? And why is a Britannian student in a place like this? Are you deaf! Answer me or I'll…" She opened fire on the wall behind him. "Answer me!" "I order you to come out, at once!" **

Villetta saw the flash of geass in his eye but the her on the screen was unaffected. That of course made sense. She was already well aware that geass required direct eye contact.

**"Who the hell do you think you are to order me!" ****_I see it only works with direct eye contact. _**She decided that it shouldn't surprise he could figure out the problem so quickly. The boy was Zero after all.

**"My name is Alan Spacer, my father's a Duke." "Nobility?" "My ID card is in my breast pocket, after you confirm who I am, I'll request your protection."** And just like that she was caught.

Villetta glared at the her on the screen. She wanted to tell her to not to fall for Zero's deception, that she should shoot him right then and there and so doing put an end to everything before it had even begun. The her on the screen however did no such thing. So she was forced to watch as she descended from the knightmare and fell prey to the boy's geass. Kaname's fingers closed reassuringly around hers. His presence was warm and comforting and she forced herself to remember that if she had killed Zero that day she would never have met her husband.

* * *

They all watched as Suzaku awoke and was given the official version of what had happened in Shinjuku. When Cecile stated that, **"with Prince Clovis nearby this is probably the safest place anywhere," **Tamaki laughed Rakshata smirked and Cecile turned faintly pink. **Then they watched as, for the first time, he was taken to the Lancelot. After that the views shifted back to the destruction in Shinjuku. "Those damn Britannians!" Kallen shouted, there were tears in her eyes. "Kallen, can the Glasgow still move?" "Don't worry Ohgi! It's all right, I'll decoy them! Get the people out! The only ones who will be captured of those of us in the resistance!" "I know, but they've got us trapped, we're completely surrounded!"**

* * *

**Meanwhile at Ashford the ginger haired girl who had appeared briefly in the first episode was standing in what was clearly the locker room getting ready for swim team. When the phone rang she answered it with "Lulu, what on earth have you been doing? Where are you now? If you keep cutting class you'll get held back." **

* * *

**"**Lulu! Seriously!" Tamaki spluttered with laughter. "They called him Lulu!" "Give it a rest." Kallen muttered, rolling her eyes.

"That girl," Empress Tianzi pointed at the screen, "who is she? She seems to have been close to him. Since you decided to invite other people from his school why didn't you invite her to?" Milly and Rivalz look down at their feet, Nina's hands twisted in her lap, and Sayoko put one arm around Nunnally's shoulder to comfort her. "That's Shirley Fenette." Kallen said, looking away. She had to clear her throat before continuing. "The reason I didn't invite her is because she died just over a year ago." "Oh." "How?" Kaguya asked.

Kallen shook her head slowly, "we don't know." She glanced up at Suzaku who turned his head away. When Shirley had died it was Lelouch who Suzaku had blamed for her death but somehow Kallen knew that he was wrong. Whatever he had or hadn't done she felt that there was no way that he would have killed Shirley.

* * *

They continued watching in a sort of sad silence for a while. Their full attention didn't return the screen until Orange began chasing down Kallen again. Kallen glared up at him. Milly rested a hand on Kallen's shoulder as though afraid that she'd try to hit him again but she just shrugged off Milly's hand, crossed her arms and glared back at the screen.

**Meanwhile back in the Glasgow Kallen's energy filler was running low. "Just 30 minutes left!" **

**"The West entrance." "hu?" "Use the tracks to move to the West entrance." "Who's this?! How do you know this code?!" **

**"That doesn't matter, if you want when you're just going to have to trust me." "To win." Kallen jumped up onto the tracks. "Ok, what am I supposed to do now?" **

**"You pathetic 11, if you simply run away this hunt hasn't much to offer in the way of sport."** Kallen cracked her knuckles menacingly and Orange looked a little abashed. ** "Since you trusted me you're going to win. Now jump up onto the train." "Gotch'ya." **

**"You think you can get through that way humm. If that's your plan then, you go after the Glasgow." "Yes my lord." **

**The knightmare leaped forward only to be struck down out of the air. "What the! Shot by friendly fire? You there what's your name and your unit, we're after the one armed Glasgow." The knightmare in question opened fire on Jeremiah. "Oh my God a terrorist!" **

* * *

"Aw, I see, so that's what happened." Jeremiah nodded to himself. "So that's how he first contacted you?" Xingke raised his eyebrows at Kallen who nodded in affirmation. "WHAT!" Rivalz squawked. "You mean Lelouch was connected to the Black Knights!" "No way!" Gino sounded equally astounded. Kallen nodded and Milly sighed. "At this point I'm not sure whether to be shocked or not. It seems that everyone else was interconnected somehow so why should he be the exception."

"My my, what a logical thought." Rakshata waived her pipe at them from where she sat above Orange and Anya. "I can see that you're more intelligent then those three idiots." She said pointing her pipe first at Gino and Rivalz and then at Tamaki. "Who are you calling an idiot!" Rivalz and Gino shouted back in unison.

"Wait what! Why the hell are you dragging me into this!" Tamaki squawked.

"Could you just shut the hell up! Some of us are trying to watch!" Chiba snapped. Rakshata just smirked.

* * *

**"Kallen, what the hell was that radio message earlier?" "What? He contacted you to?" "Sure did, and Yoshida's group ought to be here soon."**

**"Are you in charge here?" "hu? A, ya." "I present to you the cargo in that train over there. They're tools for your victory. If you want to use them to win, then follow my orders."**

* * *

"And just like that you start taking orders from him?" Chiba glared at Ohgi. "Oh please like you didn't follow his orders to." Villetta snapped back. "Waa! What about Zero?" Rivalz glanced over at the masked man. "Where is he in all this?" No one answer.

* * *

**They watched as the battle turned around and it was Clovis's force that were being destroyed. "This failure is unacceptable!" "A forgive me!" "Good afternoon." **"Lloyd!" Cecile hissed at him. "You shouldn't go hacking into other people's communications like that!" "Well it worked didn't it? If I hadn't done that then they might never have given poor Lancelot chance. Besides what am I supposed to do about it now?"

"His strategy is well devised. I must say that for his first battle I'm quite impressed." Xingke murmured to no one in particular.

Cornelia looked away. Sure Clovis was being a complete and utter idiot, and his strategies were completely transparent, but it was still painful for her to watch him being beaten like this. Both because she knew what would happen, that it would end in his death, and because the same man to whom he was losing would be the one who would claim Euphy's life. Sensing her unease Gilford leaned over and murmured in her ear. "Princess, remember we got him in the end." She nodded stiffly he turned her eyes back to the screen. She had to watch, it would be disrespectful to Clovis not to.

* * *

**"Lloyd!" "Yes your hines?" "Will it win? Can your toy beat them?" "Humph. My Lord, please be kind enough to call it Lancelot." **

"And so the White knight awakens." Tohdoh murmured glancing up at Suzaku. Suzaku shifted uneasily in his seat and looked away. _Could that just have been a coincidence? Or does he know who I am? The more we watch of this the more likely it is that I'll be found out. This isn't good. If this keeps up the whole Requiem could be in danger! But I can't appear to be afraid of what this is going to show, if I do they're almost more likely to figure it out or at least be suspicious. Nevertheless I have to figure out how to stop this, and soon!_

* * *

**"That's it?" Suzaku stared up at the Lancelot. "Yes, the special weapon developed by us in a special envoy engineering course. Lancelot, The world's first 7th generation Knightmare Frame."**

* * *

"The world's first? Don't make me laugh Pudding Earl. By that point I had already long since finished developing the Gurin." "Yes but still haven't found a devicer for it! Therefore your machine wasn't complete, and it was absolutely useless." "Oh really! Absolutely useless, you mean like your pathetic machines are when they encounter my radiant wave ser_" "SHUT UP!" This time Chiba's shout was joined by those of Kallen and Villetta. Grumbling the two mad scientists subsided.

* * *

**They watched as for the first time the Lancelot was activated. Then Suzaku began his counterattack. The first nightmare unfortunate enough to encounter the Lancelot was, as fate would have it, Tamaki's. Then Lelouch became aware of the attack**. **"This is B group, reporting enemy presence." ****_Reinforcements, real battle is different Isn't it._**** "Status?" "Everyone ejected but they took out 4 units in nothing flat!" "Enemy numbers?" "Just one. I think it's a new model. I've never seen anything like AAAA!" With that the communication cut off. ****_Useless so-called terrorists! With all the resources they have there being beaten by one unit._**

* * *

"Useless so-called terrorists!" Tamaki leapt to his feet, still yelling at the screen. "I like to see him try and take it on! That's the Lancelot unit were talking about not some Sutherland! Besides what gives him the right to pass judgment on us! Treacherous bastard!" Villetta grabbed his arm and pulled him back into his seat.

Nunnally turned her sad eyes on him. "Your name's Tamaki isn't it." She hesitated for a second as though gathering strength then continued. "I'd like you to refrain from calling him those sorts of names in my presence." The eyes of the entire room went to Nunnally. The only difference between individual expressions were that some of them were shocked and others grateful. "But Empress…" Ohgi's voice trailed away into silence.

"I agree with the Empress and I think you should all honor her decision." Orange said, giving a nod of gratitude in the young empresses direction.

Gino looked as though he was about to say something but Anya shook her head. "Leave it be. I think I understand her reasons. There is something we all owe to our memories. If she wants us to respect hers we should do so." There were several startled looks at that but the eyes of the room returned to the screen. Nunnally shot Anya a grateful look and over where he sat Xingke began making notes.

* * *

**_ If I can stop all the knightmares then this battle is over. Whatever it takes I've got to save Lelouch and that girl._**

Suzaku looked away from his younger self, and murmured in a voice so low that Nunnally could barely make out the words. "What a fool I was. But then I thought I could save him. Perhaps that just makes me a bigger fool." Nunnally reached out and squeezed his hand. This was hard for her to. Yet she knew she had to go through, both for herself, to finally learn the truth, and for Lelouch, maybe clear even his name. _I don't know how this was made or how it's possible, but I do know this. Big brother, even from beyond the grave, somehow you managed to bring us another miracle._

* * *

**"Stop there. Your ID, this is Prince Clovis's personal transport." "At last the check point, and barely guarded per my plan." "Your plan?" "That's right. Now I'd like you to let me pass." "Yes sir, understood."**

"Hu?" Gino stared at the screen in confusion. "What is he doing there? Shouldn't Zero be appearing soon? He was the one who killed Clovis after all."

* * *

**"So this is where you 11 vermin scurried off to! Prepare to fire." The commander raised his hand. "Commence_" **

**"Attention all forces. Cease-fire at once, I repeat cease-fire at once. I Clovis, 3rd Prince of Britannia and Royal viceroy of area 11, hereby command you, all forces are ordered to cease-fire at once. You will also cease destruction of any buildings or property. All casualties, whether Britannian or 11, will be treated equally and without prejudice. In the name of Clovis La Britannia you are hereby ordered, cease-fire at 1. I shall allow no further fighting."**

**The lights in the prince's room when out, signaling an end to the broadcast. "Are you satisfied?" "Yes, well done." "And what shall we do now sing a few lively ballads? Or perhaps a nice game of chess." "That has a familiar ring." "hum?" "Don't you recall? The two of us used to play chess together as boys. Of course I would always win." "What!" "Remember, at the Aries Villa." "You! Who are you?" "It's been a longtime big brother. The eldest child of the late consort Marianne and 17th in line to the imperial throne, Lelouch Vi Britannia at your service." "Lelouch! B-but, I thought_" "that I was dead? You were wrong. I have returned, your highness. And I've come back to change everything."**


End file.
